Ohio & Mahoning Valley - It's International Drug Overdose Awareness day and across the Valley, there are several events to remember those who have lost their lives to an overdose.

The Mahoning County Mental Health & Recovery Board said more than 5,000 people died from an overdose in Ohio in 2020.

140 of those deaths were in Mahoning County, and the county has had 81 overdose deaths up to date in 2021.

Deaths across the county have since increased by 22% since 2019.

What gets lost in all of those numbers, though, is that every one of them is a real person and represents a real family. A local group of mothers today who've lost their kids to addiction said they hope the memories of the ones they've lost can help break the cycle that so many are still caught in.

"Always people are thinking, 'never my child,' but it could be your child cause I never thought I would be in this position either. None of us did," said Anna Howells of Boardman, part of a support group of about 20 mothers who've lost their children to drug overdoses.

"David my son... he died of a heroin overdose. He was 31 years old. He died in 2012," said Jeanette DeCapuaklukan of Canfield, "We talk about how our children were just kind, gentle, loving people."

The mothers said although there is more awareness now, there is still a major stigma and they see it up close after years of losing their own.

"A lot of people don't even want to put in their obituary that that's how they died because of the shame, but people make them feel like that," Howells said. 

They added they would like to see drug overdoses handled more seriously within law enforcement and the healthcare system.

"This is a disease just like cancer, diabetes and we want the stigma and shame to stop," Howells said. 

Oftentimes they said parents don't know it's happening and for many of their kids it started from being impaired from alcohol, or from another medication prescribed by a doctor leading to an addiction. 

"I wish i knew a lot more about addiction when my son was alive," Howells said, "I wish I knew what I knew now, and I always tell parents to educate themselves."